A Poet’s Nanaimo

It’s been ten years since I had cancer which makes it time to celebrate that milestone of Ten Years Cancer Free!Following a biopsy on my shin which revealed that the lump was spindle cell sarcoma, my GP in Nanaimo told me there would probably be some treatment and...

Thank you to Derek Hanebury, host and MC of Electric Mermaid “live reads” for inviting me to be the feature reader on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6 p.m. Pacific. If you’re in Port Alberni, B.C., Char’s Landing at 4815 Argyle Street is the place to go. Otherwise,...

If my dear old dad was still alive, I would have given him a call on the weekend to tell him The Northlander is back. As Taras Grescoe wrote in his Saturday Globe and Mail opinion piece: “For the first time in 14 years, a passenger train headed for the eastern shores...

I’ve found that writing, using different forms, can reveal epiphanies as something new gets revealed through a different lens. Just last week I offered a women’s writing circle online called “Dwell in Possibility.” We explored fiction or re-envisioning in poetry as...

A Summer Pop-Up women's writing circle on Zoom: Thursday, June 2610:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. PacificAs writing is a “whole life” practice, helping us in all aspects of our lives, I’ve planned some pop-up women’s writing circles to nourish our writing in community through the...

I call this blog A Poet’s Nanaimo as I live in a city full of poets and poetry events. In May, my partner Sarah Clark and I will have lived in Nanaimo for twenty years. We’ve made a lot of friends during the years and taken part in many literary events including some...